And again ...

... poor neglected blog.

I did eventually have the baby - at 43 weeks and 1 day (July 29). Her name is Evelyn:



The birth didn't go as planned, and it's taking me a while to get back on my feet.

But here's a quick deer costume I whipped up for Emma for Book Week, on 24 hours' notice. (She's Bambi.)





I didn't even get a chance to go to the fabric store, so it's made from an old quilt cover :)

Yeh, I've been slack again. I'm now nearly 41 weeks pregnant and today finally got the motivation to do some sewing. Most of my fabric is packed away (again), so this was all made from scraps - hence the slightly odd fabric choices!



Post-partum pads (backed with ProCare, core of bamboo terry, one has a scrummy cotton velour top, the other has the Elmo flannelette), and 2 pairs of breastpads (backed with PUL - I'm not prone to getting sweaty/heat rashes and I tend to leak through non-waterproofed ones quite quickly in the early days). The overlocking is way dodgy, but hey, who cares?



Fleece liners for that meconium stage, and some scrap wipes (the strange shapes being to get the most out of my fabric scraps).

I feel very thrifty!

Oh, and here's a hat I knitted up and took forever to seam up:



Ear flap!

Pan-fried potatoes with spinach

In the absence of anything interesting on the crafting front, I thought I'd share this rather yummy side dish I made with dinner tonight. Of course, I ate it before I thought to take any pictures :P

Ingredients:
------------
Potatoes, scrubbed, skin on (or peeled, if you prefer)
Handful fresh spinach leaves, shredded/chopped
1 stick celery, leaves removed, sliced finely (an onion would also go well, I think, but I didn't have one, and I have too much celery in the fridge)
Dried thyme, or other herb of choice
Handful grated cheese
Salt & pepper
Oil - however much you feel you need for the amount of potatoes you have.
1 clove garlic, crushed (again, more if you're doing lots of potatoes)

Method
------
Chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces; par-boil for about five minutes and drain.

Heat oil in a decent-sized frying pan on high heat. Add garlic and celery; cook, stirring until celery is soft.

Add potatoes to pan, sprinkle with thyme. Toss quickly for a few minutes, then turn the heat down.

Add shredded spinach, toss through. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring/tossing regularly.

Season with salt and pepper, and add cheese. Continue to cook until cheese has melted.

I have been a bad, bad blogger! I am 38 weeks pregnant, if that's an excuse ;)

I pretty much lost the creative urge again for a while, due to lack of energy and a tonne of other stuff to do. I still have a tonne of other stuff to do (!!), but in the past few days I've been attacking my mending/half-finished projects pile.

Way too boring to take photos of, but I fixed the elastic in a couple of nappies and a pair of pants, mended some socks and a teddy bear ... I have a cute little baby beanie with ear flaps nearly finished that I must get on to next, and some PUL covers for Alastair that I cut out ages ago and never sewed the FOE on to.

That's about as far as my 'nesting' urge goes, although I guess I've decluttered a lot of clothes lately (about 6 big garbage bags of clothes and toys off to the op shop).

I'll take a photo of the birth pool once I've got it set up (soon!) - that's domestic enough :)

Very Hungry pants!

This is my first go at 'real' pants (pockets, back yoke, fake 'fly'), as opposed to simple unstructured pants. I used a KwikSew pattern, though I adjusted the size to fit Alastair. I did NOT like the way the waistband was constructed; I found it far too fiddly. So that bit is pretty messy, but they're pants for a 2yo - he's not going to care. Having learnt the basics of how to construct a pocket, I should be able to adapt my own pattern. I'd prefer slightly wider legs, and as I said I'd just do a simpler waistband.

I still think they're cute! Babywale pale green corduroy with quilting cotton accents :) THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. (Alastair loves this book.)

Front:


Back:


I'll try and get an action shot because they don't lie flat very well.

Whee! Newborn fluff

All made with the Darling Diapers newborn pattern, but I adapted the pattern to make a fold-out soaker.

Outers: cotton knit
Hidden layer: hemp fleece
Inners: cotton velour (the squishiest velour EVER) and sherpa (so fluffy)
Fold-out soaker: velour/sherpa/hemp (3 layers in total, doubled over)





I went with the fold-out soaker (sewn in at the back) for maximum absorbency with minimal drying time, for this winter baby. There's no internal soaker at all, so there's only ever three layers together.

A sock!

And it fits! (My ankles aren't really this fat, bear in mind it's an 8ply sock so quite thick.)



I have started on the second one in an effort not to get second sock syndrome. I'm pretty happy with this one for my first ever sock. There are a couple of little holes around the heel flap where I picked up stitches a bit unevenly, and I screwed up the seed stitch rib when I moved on to the foot, so it doesn't match up with the top half of the sock, but it fits and it looks like a sock, so I'm not complaining!

One each of the kids from playing at Toddler Town today, just 'cos they're cute: